Budget in line with expectations - S&P

MUMBAI

A man looks at TV screens showing Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram presenting the Union budget, at a shop in Mumbai February 29, 2008.

Reuters/Punit Paranjpe

MUMBAI (Reuters) - International ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Friday that India's 2008/09 budget was largely in line with expectations and more work needed to be done for upgrading ratings.

"The challenges to India's ratings in the future comes from the implementation of the sixth pay commission, slower growth and potential expenditure overruns," Sani Hamid, director at S&P in Singapore, told Reuters.

S&P upgraded India's sovereign rating to BBB-/Stable in January 2007, the first time the country has been on the lowest rung of investment grade in more than a decade.

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